86% of Moroccan respondents say climate change is already affecting their everyday life; 51% believe that climate change and environmental damage have affected their income or source of livelihood; 78% of Moroccan respondents say that investing in renewable energy should be prioritised.
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These are some of the key findings from the first African edition [1] of the European Investment Bank’s (EIB’s) 2022 Climate Survey. The EIB is the lending arm of the European Union and the world’s largest multilateral lender for climate action projects. Since 2018, the EIB has conducted similar large-scale climate surveys across Europe, China and the United States.
Morocco is strongly committed to the fight against global warming, as one of the world’s first countries to submit its first nationally determined contribution.
Adaptation is a top priority, given the country’s high vulnerability to climate change. The cost of implementing adaptation programmes in the most affected sectors is estimated at nearly $40 billion. Those sectors include water, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, health and habitat, and the most vulnerable environments and ecosystems are oases, coasts and mountains. As part of the European Green Deal, the European Union has been working with Morocco since 2020 to develop the first green partnership outside the European Union. It aims to strengthen political dialogue and technical cooperation between them in the fight against climate change, the energy transition, environmental protection and promoting the green economy. The country’s decarbonisation and the promotion of a resilient and resource-efficient economy are also priorities for several EU Member States and donors in Morocco.
Leila Benali, Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development:
“The Kingdom of Morocco has been at the forefront of the fight against climate change for more than 30 years. We have put sustainability at the heart of our development model and we have followed an inclusive approach: Having citizens participate is key to the success. People already see the impact of climate change in their daily life since they are dealing with recurring drought, biodiversity loss, coast line impact, etc. Ironically, we also start to see it affecting the financing of the next generation of renewable and green projects.”
Ricardo Mourinho-Félix, vice-president of the EIB, said:
“The EIB has a long-established relationship with Morocco and has provided funding for initiatives to improve Morocco’s resilience to rehabilitate and improve the country’s water supply, as well as initiatives for agricultural ecosystems. The EIB is collaborating closely with Moroccan partners following COP27 to accelerate climate action investment, including large-scale clean energy, sustainable transport and water investment, to support the country’s green transition.”
Climate change and environmental degradation
The survey results confirm that climate change has negatively affected the livelihoods of Moroccan people, with just over half (51%) stating that their income has been affected. These losses are typically due to severe drought, rising sea levels or coastal erosion, or extreme weather events such as floods or hurricanes.
Just under half of Moroccans (49% vs. the African average of 57%) say they or people they know have already taken some form of action to adapt to the impact of climate change. Some of these initiatives include investments in water-saving technologies to reduce the impact of drought and drain clearing in advance of flooding.
Investment in energy sources
When asked about the sources of energy their country should invest in to combat climate change, 78% of Moroccan respondents, close to the African average of 76%, say renewable energy should be prioritised, far ahead of fossil fuels (11%).
The EIB has a long-standing relationship with Morocco, which dates back to 1979, and has provided funding for long-term public and private investments across the country by financing the production of renewable energy and the development of sustainable urban transport.
The EIB has operated in Africa since 1965. Since then, it has invested €59 billion in 52 African countries, supporting infrastructure projects, innovative firms and renewable energy schemes, in the public sector and private companies, from microenterprises to the largest multinationals. Africa needs to increase its spending on combating climate change by several hundred billion euros a year.
[1] Covering Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of European Investment Bank (EIB).
Media contacts:
CHARRIER-RACHIDI Driss, tel. +212 661 473 000, d.charrierrachidi@ext.eib.org
AUGUIN Anne-Cécile, tel. +352 621 36 1948, a.auguin@eib.org
About the EIB Climate Survey:
Conducted in partnership with the market research firm BVA, the first African edition of the EIB Climate Survey aims to inform the broader debate on attitudes and expectations in terms of climate action.
More than 6 000 respondents – including 1 000 Egyptians – aged 15 and over from 10 African countries participated in the survey between 1 and 25 August 2022, with a representative panel for each of the countries polled.
More findings from the first African edition of the EIB Climate Survey: https://bit.ly/3YDrSN2
About the European Investment Bank:
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by the EU Member States. The EIB Group has adopted a Climate Bank Roadmap (https://bit.ly/3jiCmRJ) to deliver on its ambitious agenda to support €1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainability investments in the decade to 2030 and to deliver more than 50% of EIB funding for climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025. As part of the roadmap, all new EIB Group operations have been aligned with the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement since the start of 2021.
EIB Global (https://bit.ly/3HJLngS) is the EIB Group’s new specialised arm dedicated to increasing the impact of international partnerships and development finance. EIB Global is designed to foster strong, focused partnerships within Team Europe (https://bit.ly/3v2oQEn), alongside fellow development finance institutions and civil society. EIB Global brings the EIB Group closer to local people, companies and institutions through its offices across the world (https://bit.ly/3VflmsK).
